Max out a roth IRA vs Save more aggressively to start BRRRRing

[Anthony M Schlitt]

Looking for some opinions here, particularly from some FIRE people.

Background: I'm 23, a year out of college, earn ~60k in the military and carry almost no college debt. I've been maxing my roth IRA for the last three years. Been studying personal finance for the last year or so, and the idea of F.I. has caught my eye for the last few months. Just read David Greene's BRRRR book and in it, he suggests saving until you have the capability to purchase a distressed property without financing before you get started. In order to reach my savings goals more quickly, I've considered cutting back how much I contribute yearly to my roth IRA.

Question: Could saving more aggressively for real estate investment (in order to achieve financial independence more quickly) justify reducing retirement savings that will compound for nearly 40 years?

Pros:

• If I were to achieve FI by, say, 40 the need for a large payout at 59.5 is lessened.
• FI earlier in life due to quicker timeline. Maybe I'm drinking the FIRE coolaid a little too much, but if I can reach a stage in life with an ideal work-life balance earlier (particularly when family/kids are young) I should pursue that as aggressively as possible.

Cons:

• I'm still working towards my first investment property. Reducing roth IRA investments (in mutual funds/lifecycle funds) is putting a lot of faith in just one investment type.
• As young as I am, cutting retirement savings massively reduces available sum at 59.5. (e.g.: a one time $6000 investment at 7% annual return becomes just over $73,000 in 37 years)

(pardon the extra few bullets, I couldn't get rid of them for some reason)

[Watson Hilaire]

@Anthony M Schlitt you can have your cake and eat it too :). I am also in the military. First off, you can borrow from your IRA to use as a down payment for a property. Second, you get VA loan funding of up to $417k with no down payment. You can use your VA funding loan to HOUSE HACK by purchasing Two - Four units multi family as long as you agree to live in you of the units. In addition, you can use 203k loan to purchase distress properties that you will live in and convert it to VA funding. I recommend you keep it simple, use your VA funding to purchase two-four unit multi-family close to the base your are at, rent to follow military members so they can pocket some of their BAH (everybody wins). You follow this and you should be able to live for free and pocket your BAH. All while continuing to max your IRA contributions.

Go Blue!